Several times in previous columns (e.g. The Noblest of Trades, 09.24.2022) I have tried to express, probably too pompously, that land surveying (and…
Category: Everything Is Somewhere
05.11.2025
Pragmatic Mystic
Christopher Alexander’s Vision of a Living World
In 2005 I reviewed the first two books of architect Christopher Alexander’s four-book magnum opus, The Nature of Order in two columns—Life, the…
12.31.2024
Reflections of a Former Former Land Surveyor
2001 was a big year for me: I quit a fundamentalist Christian cult and adopted new beliefs about the eternal, moved from the…
06.10.2024
The Pier Stone, and Thomas Jefferson as Geomancer-in-Chief
Probably the majority of American land surveyors know of the Jefferson Pier’s existence, while at the same time having only hazy and subtly…
11.01.2023
Everything is Somewhere: A Few Words in Favor of Libertarian Ideals
I read Carl C. de Baca’s (PLS) August 2023 column, Anatomy of a Conspiracy, with great interest and approval which perhaps is no…
08.12.2023
Custodians of Civilization
“As humans, we are historically biased against maintenance, and yet that is exactly what infrastructure needs,” according to UCLA archaeologist Monica L. Smith,…
